Method and system for automated configuration of space, equipment and costs of health-care facility

ABSTRACT

A method and computer-implemented system provides for planning of health-care facilities, including planning of space requirements, costs, equipment requirements for the health-care facility. User requirements are accepted as input information as to the departments and number of beds for the proposed health-care facility. Generic room data is applied to the inputted data and outputs are generated reporting total area of the facility, estimated costs and equipment requirements and costs. Output data can include breakdown area and costs per department and even per room.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to a method and system forgenerating planning information on a health-care facility, and inparticular to a method and to a system implemented by a computer forgenerating space planning, cost planning and equipment planninginformation for a medical care facility,.

2. Description of the Related Art

There has been a lack of efficiency in the planning processes forhealth-care facility design and realization, and in particular a lack ofstandardized, knowledge-based tools for fast and transparentconfiguration of space requirements, equipment lists and cost estimates.In addition, building designs frequently dictate the processes happeninginside and not vice versa as would be beneficial in order to bestsupport the user's processes.

Usually, the process of integration and optimization of health-carefacility design and construction is managed by an tremendous amount ofcoordination work, iterative procedures and manual integration of thefindings. This methodology is accompanied by long durations for eachproject phase and high expenses for integration management. Interfacesbetween the various participants in the process (the user, consultants,and authorities) result in a loss of information and a lot of waste.

The necessary integration of: process (re-)engineering and processdefinition; medical equipment and information technology; and thephysical environment (architecture) is often completely missed.Frequently, health-care facility planning is a set of partial solutionsresulting in non-optimized project construction and eventually insub-optimal business processes for the user.

The current methodology wastes resources, leaves unaccountable gaps incoverage, results in a loss of information and fails to build on thestrength of the health professionals involved to ensure that the processis timely, appropriate and efficient.

In a recent publication “Accelerating Change”, The Strategic Forum forConstruction, a UK-wide initiative for improving performance in theconstruction industry, chaired by Sir John Egan, specifies the followingcharacteristics for high-performance enterprises in this sector:

-   -   A process that helps clients describe their needs . . .    -   Integrated teams [ . . . ] using an integrated IT approach    -   . . . a culture of continuous improvement.        (see Accelerating Change, Strategic Forum for Construction, p.        10; http://www.rethinkingconstruction.org)

Available industry offerings typically address improvement needs at thelevel of single faculties involved but not on the level of the entirehealth-care facility programming and delivery. Supply chains arefragmented. Due to the complexity and timeframe of health-care projects,the feed-back from finished health-care facilities construction intocurrent designs is unsatisfactory.

There is a need for the ability to configure a workflow-optimizedhealth-care facility using a pre-defined process framework withclinician and space planner developed and reviewed content as well asassociated methodologies for fast-track project design and costdocuments.

There is a need for on-line cause and effect relationships (withreference to quality, area and costs) to be used in preliminary designphases of health-care facilities, which could significantly increase theefficiency of the health-care facility programming and design phase.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method and computer-implemented systemto support the process definition, space configuration, cost estimationand equipment integration in health-care facilities. In particular, byusing a health-care process framework with space and equipmentallocations, the present method and system defines the ideally suitedphysical environments according to a user's requirements (which are usedas input parameters). The result of the method and system includes spaceand costs estimates for the planned health-care facility as well asequipment lists, room data sheets, key performance indicators anddocumentation on the requirements. In one embodiment, the inventionprovides on-line programming of a customized and process optimizedhealth-care facility.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overview of the method for thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a screen shot from a computer-implemented system embodying thepresent invention, showing a screen for user input into the system;

FIG. 3 is a screen shot of the detailed area portion for thecomputer-implemented system which performs the present method;

FIG. 4 is a screen shot of a cost estimation portion for thecomputer-implemented system of the present method;

FIG. 5 is a screen shot of the product cost display for thecomputer-implemented system; and

FIG. 6 is a screen shot of an example room data sheet produced by thecomputer-implemented system according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The invention provides an online documentation of user's requirements inthe health-care facility planning process. The output is backed up by anoptimized set of user's processes. The system allows a heretofore unseenflexibility in the programming phase, since changes do not require new,lengthy and costly iteration in the preliminary design phase, but only a“click”. User's processes and requirements are matched to acorresponding room program, the medical IT (Information Technology) andthe equipment in a fast and efficient way.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment 10 of a method and system, which ispreferably implemented by a computer, for generating a informationrelating to the health-care facility plan. In the method, userrequirements 12 are received by the system. Within the system, a genericspace allotment program 14 provides general information on spacerequirements for the requested features. A cost database 16 providesinformation on the estimated costs for each of the requested features.Generic room data sheets 18 are input to provide information on rooms,and an equipment database 20 is provided which has information on thespecial requirements of the equipment requested. This is supported by aprocess framework 22 that generates an output 24, here termed adocument, having an optimized facilities plan. The process framework 22is a tool which provides information on the best practices of clinicaland operational processes in health-care enterprises. The findings fromthe process framework 22 are used to develop ideal room layouts and toconstantly improve and optimize the required room quality, size andconfigurations. Information about the size is stored in the genericspace program 14. The process framework 22 may directly interact withthe generic space program, such as by having its output connected to theinput of the generic space program 14. The optimized facilities plan 24provides a baseline for further design changes as desired by the user,for example. In other words, the user may enter different userrequirements to determine what changes are made in the output as aresult

The present method is carried out on a computer system including datastored as database and spreadsheet data and applied as defined by thegeneric definitions and the user requirements. An example of acomputer-implemented system for carrying out the present method isprovided in the following figures.

The generic space allotment information is combined with the actualrequirements of the user to create a customized space allotment programfrom the generic program. The algorithm behind this transformation isbased on a set number of rooms for a specific number of beds andambulatory care services per year. In one embodiment, a linear functionis used, although a non-linear function is contemplated as well.

In FIG. 2, a screen shot 26 of a display screen for receiving userrequirements information is shown. The screen is implemented in aspreadsheet program, such as Microsoft Excel running in a MicrosoftWindows operating environment, such as Windows 98 or Windows XP,although other spreadsheets programs and other operating software are ofcourse possible. The screen shot displays the title bar 28, menu bar 30,button bars 32, scroll bars 34, and the “start” button and task bar 36,as are familiar to all Windows users. The menu bar 32 lists the menusavailable, include file, edit, view, insert, format, extras, data,window, help and Acrobat. Within the Microsoft Excel program window isshown the column 38 and row 40 headings, name box 42 and formula bar 44,as are known. The worksheet area 46 of the Excel program shows theworksheets which embody the present invention. The various parts of thepresent program are accessed by selecting tabs 48, also termed sheettabs, shown along the bottom of the screen, the screen shown in FIG. 2being shown as the result of the selection of the first tab 48, entitled“Make your choice.”. Other tabs 48 shown access the Space and OperationsProgram, Summary, Area Program, Cost Estimation, Product Cost, Manual,and Changes. Nine such tabs are provided in the preferred embodiment,with only the first eight being visible in this screen shot.

Within the screen or worksheet area 46 following the screen title“Siemens Digital Hospital: make your choice.” is provided a text entrybox for entering the name of the project being designed; here “ErlangenHeart Center” (Erlangen being a town in Germany) has been entered to asthe name of the project for this example. A menu of possible specializedservice areas or departments 52 are shown following the project name 50.In the present embodiment these departments 52 include, for example,neurology, ophthalmology, ear, nose and throat, dental and oral surgery,cardiology, pulmonary, gastro-enterology department, urology andnephrology department, gynecology and obstetrics, and neonatology. Eachdepartment name 52 is followed by a selection box 54. The list ofpossible specialized service areas continues with additional departmentsbelow the area show on the screen shot, these being accessed by movementof the vertical scroll bar 34, as is well known. Accordingly, thepossible departments 52 which the user may select are greater than thoseidentified here.

The user of the software selects the specialized service areas desiredfor the new or remodeled health-care facility by entering a selection inthe selection box 54 following the corresponding department name. Forexample, this is accomplished by movement of the pointer, such as themouse pointer, over the selection box and “clicking” the mouse selectionbutton. Of course, it is well understood that selection of this item aswell as others features of the program may be accomplished by anypointing and selecting device, including a computer mouse, touch pad,pointing stick, joy stick, trackball, touch screen or by operation ofkeys, usually combinations of keys, on a keyboard.

After a department 52 is selected, further information on the selecteddepartments is requested of the user, such as the number of patients tobe treated at one time, the number of treatment rooms desired, etc. Forexample, the user has selected the ear, nose and throat department 56and the pulmonary department 58, as indicted by the check marks in thecorresponding selection boxes 54. The selection of these departments hasopened up a space on the display screen for entry of the furtherinformation by the user for a basic ear, nose and throat department anda basic pulmonary department. For the ear, nose and throat department,text boxes 60 and 62 show the number of normal care and intensive carebeds (shown here has 40 and 5), the number of outpatient services 64 peryear (shown here has 15,000) and the number of ear, nose and throatnurses and surgical physicians 66 (shown here as 1) has been entered.The information entry boxes 60, 62, 64, and 66 are located under columnsentitled, normal care beds 68, intensive care beds 70, operatingphysicians 72, ambulatory services 74, miscellaneous 76, and remarks 78.Under the remarks column 78 is a note to include clinical administrativesystem information.

Similarly, a basic pulmonary department 58 has been selected andinquiries are made as to the number of normal care 60 and emergency care62 beds (shown here as 30 and 10, respectively), the number ofoutpatient services 64 per year (shown here has 20,000) and the numberof pulmonary health professionals 66 (shown here as 0). Both of theselected departments 56 and 58 indicate that they are to includeclinical administrative system information. Entry of numbers into thesequestion boxes 60, 62, 64, and 66 for the departments causes the programto calculate therefrom the area 80 required for these facilities, whichis shown to the right in the corresponding department area. For example,the program has determined that the ear, nose and throat department willoccupy 439 square meters and the pulmonary department will occupy 237square meters.

A box 82 at the top of the screen provides information on what has beenalready selected, including number of outpatient services, number ofnormal and intensive care beds and number of health care professionals.A reset button 84 is also provided to return the selections to defaultvalues.

Following the completion of the department selections under the “makeyour choice . . . ” tab 48, the user of the program moves on to othertabs. Of course, the interactive nature of the present program permitsthe user to move back to a given tab to change selections therein so asto get a different result.

Referring to FIG. 3, the user of the program has selected the areaprogram tab 100. The display provides a detailed listing of features ofthe rooms for the facilities, including specialized rooms such as EEG(electroencephalogram) rooms, and more mundane rooms as a reception area104, public restrooms 106 and staff restrooms 108, kitchen area 110,etc. The rooms such as the reception area, restrooms and kitchen areamay be considered common areas, whereas operating rooms, examinationrooms, and patient treatment rooms are specific to each department. Eachspecialized area required for the facility based on the user input istreated in the detailed area program feature 112 of the method.

In particular, the worksheet area for the area program is shown thetitle, Siemens Digital Hospital: Detailed Area Program, and the subtitlebox 114, Detailed Room Program. The project title 116 is shown, ErlangenHeart Center, under which it the instruction, to update: press “DetailedRoom Program”. A calculation has been made for the health-care facilityshowing the total floor space 118 as 15,629 square meters.

In a row and column format is presented the following information, roomname 120, number 122, area per room 124, area 126 and comment 128. Roomsshown in the illustrated example include: reception area with controlroom and secretary area 104, waiting area 130, EEG 102, examination andevaluation rooms 132, sleep lab and measuring area 134, sleep labobservation and examination area 136, management office 138, office 140,lounge and tea kitchen 110, entrance area 142, disposal area includingsink 144, employee bathroom 108, patient bathroom 106, wiring closet—IT/electrical closet—proportionate 146, and janitor room including sink148. The grayed out selection 150 indicates that the bed stationproportionate is accounted for in the bed station.

Below the overall room information is a department by departmentbreakdown with the same information available for each department. Inthe screen shot of the example, a basic neurology department 112 isshown.

Area information is matched to cost benchmark information, which isfound in an editable overall benchmark of a cost estimation sheet. It iscontemplated to assign individual cost benchmark figures to each roomand department in the generic space program.

A cost estimate is provided in FIG. 4. The costs are presented in a topdown approach, with the total costs presented, followed by a breakdownof those costs.

In particular, the worksheet area 46 has been selected by selecting thecost estimation tab 170, resulting in the screen entitled SiemensDigital Hospital: Cost Estimation—Top down approach being shown. Again,the project title 172 is shown, below which is information on thecombined area. In box 174 is indicated the total floor space of 7,773square meters for the project. Below the area information is thecomposition of combined costs area. Shown therein under the columnsentitled title, specific costs 178, costs 180 and percentage 182 areitems identified as sum of building construction and technical systems184 (totaling 14,248,050 Euros) that includes medical technology 186,general equipment 188, exterior grounds 190, and productioncosts/investment 192 under which is planning/additional building costs194 and reserve 196. Each of the sub-items has a percentage figureassociated in column 178 with it as well as the source of thecalculation and a fluctuation margin, and sub-item cost 180. Lastly, thetotal cost 198 of the medical facility is estimated.

Below the composition of combined costs area is a trade segment andthereunder a listing of specific values of area and costs. Under thisarea are provided information for departments and central functions witha breakdown 200 of costs per bed, floor space per bed, etc.

Each room is provided with the necessary equipment to fulfill itsfunction. The product costs for the room provides the number of eachitem of equipment for the selections made in the “make your choice . . .” worksheet and multiplies it by the unit prices of the equipment. Theunit price information is an editable item in the product cost sheet ofthe program. The total equipment costs are thereby provided.

The facility costs are presented in FIG. 5. As before, the rest of thedata is viewable by moving the scroll bar 34, but is not shown in thisview. In the screen shot of the example, the total costs 220 areprovided for the medical technology and costs of external goods 222 witha total cost 224 of the medical technology presented. The costbreakdowns provide cost information for the individual systems that makeup the cost total. The facilities costs are accessed by selection of thetab 226.

Each room type in the generic space program is back up by a generic roomdata sheet which gives detailed information on the processes happeninginside, the installed equipment, the electrical and HVAC requirements,the finishes, etc. It is also contemplated that the program picks theright sheets according to the user choices and collects them togetherwith other summary sheets to provide a project specific workbook. Theproject workbook provides an immediate on-line comprehensive basis forfurther programming and design work.

The different requirements for each room are modeled, to some extent, onthe department that room is associate with. So all examination roomswill not necessarily be equipped in the same way. For example, anexamination room for one department may have some different equipmentthan an examination room for another department depending on the medicalprocedures or patient needs of that department. Wards within thehealth-care facility are centralized and are given similar sizes andqualities regardless of the department to which they are assigned. As analternative, the present invention integrates department-specificinformation into the generic room type information so that rooms arefurther differentiated from department to department, for example as tosize, finish, etc.

FIG. 6 provides an example of a room data sheet 250 that is viewed afterselection of the tab 252 entitled “Example Room Data Sheet”. The roomdata includes a description of the services 254 to be performed in eachroom, so that the user has a full understanding of what is required forthe rooms being provided according to the plan. For example, the roomdata sheet for the operating department (surgery department) 256provides information on the operating theater 258 with its associatedsupporting rooms such as a preparation room 260, an anesthesia room 262,scrub up and gowning room 264, cleaning (utility) room and storage 266and direct access to the corridor or exit bay 268. In this instance, theoperating theater is a primary room for the operating, or surgical,department and the secondary rooms, such as a scrub and gowning room,anesthesia room, etc. are associated with it. Architectural requirementsfor equipment 270 for the room are provided such as information on thelargest piece of equipment, whether is has a radiation source, the loadrequirements, etc. The personnel numbers 272 are also identified,indicating that the operating theater is sized for one patient and sevenmedical staff persons.

The output of the present program is information about the area or sizeof the health-care facility, a listing of the rooms including, for eachdepartment, the type of room, the individual size, the number of rooms,and the total area for the department. The output also includes anestimate for the building costs and possibly the cost of building eachdepartment. A list of equipment is provided for the entire facility aswell as a listing of the equipment to be provided for each room type.The cost of the equipment for the facility and for each room type isalso provided.

The output information from the present program is presented as text andis also presented as charts and tables.

Therefore, once a user enters the initial information on the facilitiesdesired, the present program produces an output that includes

-   -   Requirements documentation    -   Space programs    -   Room data sheets    -   Equipment program and lists    -   Cost estimation (capital and operation) of the entire facility    -   Key performance indicators

The present invention can be used for planning of new health-carefacilities or for remodeling of existing health-care facilities. Thehealth-care facilities can be hospitals, clinics, doctors offices, orother facilities providing health-care services.

The present method and system promotes the focus of planning of a newhealth-care facility to be on development of new build schemes. Afurther application of the present invention is to apply the processesto existing structures to determine whether benchmarks are met, as wellas to plan for further improvements in the facility.

The cost data generated by the program according to the presentinvention is based on costs of equipment and construction within thecountry and region of the planned health-care facility. Accordingly,different cost data is provided in the program for different countriesand/or regions.

Although other modifications and changes may be suggested by thoseskilled in the art, it is the intention of the inventors to embodywithin the patent warranted hereon all changes and modifications asreasonably and properly come within the scope of their contribution tothe art.

1. A method for space planning in a health-care facility, comprising thesteps of: receiving user requirements for a proposed health-carefacility; applying generic space allocations for health-care facilitiesto the user requirements; applying a cost database for health-carefacilities planning to the user requirements; applying generic room datasheets for health-care facilities to the user requirements; applying anequipment database for health-care facilities to the user requirements;and generating output data for planning an health-care facilityaccording to the user requirements.
 2. A method as claimed in claim 1,wherein said output data includes area to be occupied by the health-carefacility, estimated costs of constructing the health care facility andidentification of equipment to be provided for the health-care facility.3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said step of receiving theuser requirements includes identification of departments to be providedin the health-care facility.
 4. A method as claimed in claim 3, whereinsaid step of receiving the user requirements includes identification ofexpected outpatient services and desired number of patient beds perdepartment.
 5. A method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising thestep of: applying said space planning method to an existing health-carefacility.
 6. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said step ofgenerating output data includes: identifying rooms to be provided for ahealth-care facility.
 7. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein saidstep of generating output data includes: identifying associatedsupporting rooms for primary rooms of the health-care facility andincluding said primary rooms and said associated supporting rooms insaid output data.
 8. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said stepof generating output data includes: generating a total estimated costfor the health-care facility.
 9. A method as claimed in claim 8, whereinsaid step of generating output data includes: generating costs perdepartment for the health-care facility.
 10. A method as claimed inclaim 1, further comprising the steps of: identifying rooms to beprovided in the health-care facility by room type; and applying genericroom data to each of the room types in the health-care facility.
 11. Amethod as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of:identifying items of equipment to be provided for types of rooms of thehealth-care facility.
 12. A method as claimed in claim 11, furthercomprising the step of: identifying cost of equipment for types of roomsof the health-care facility.
 13. A computer-implemented system forplanning a health-care facility, comprising: an input process foraccepting user information on a requested health-care facility; genericroom data and cost data and area data for room types in a health-carefacility; a process framework for applying the generic room data andarea data and cost data to the user information; and a display processfor displaying output data for the health-care facility including areainformation and cost information and equipment information.
 14. Acomputer-implemented system as claimed in claim 13, wherein said genericroom type data includes room information for types of rooms inhealth-care facilities and said process framework applies said genericroom type data to the user information.
 15. A computer-implementedsystem as claimed in claim 13, wherein said input process includesidentification of available departments for selection by the user.
 16. Acomputer-implemented system as claimed in claim 15, wherein said inputprocess includes an input process for receiving information from a useron a number of bed for each selected department and a number ofoutpatient services for each selected department and a number ofhealth-care professionals for each selected department of thehealth-care facility.
 17. A computer-implemented system as claimed inclaim 13, wherein said display process displays output data for commonareas of the health-care facility and for department areas of thehealth-care facility.
 18. A computer-implemented system as claimed inclaim 13, wherein said cost data displayed by said display processincludes an estimate for total cost of the health-care facility andcosts for systems within the health-care facility.
 19. Acomputer-implemented method for planning a health-care facility,comprising the steps of: presenting a listing of departments ofhealth-care facilities to a user for selection; receiving selections ofdepartments from the user for a health-care facility; requestinginformation on each selected department from the user; receiving saidinformation from said user for selected departments; applying a processframework to said selections and said information from said user, saidprocess framework applying generic room type data and cost data and areadate to said selections and said information from said user; generatingan output of cost information and area information for the health-carefacility.
 20. A computer-implemented method as claimed in claim 19,wherein said step of generating generates an output of equipmentinformation for the health-care facility.
 21. A computer-implementedmethod as claimed in claim 19, wherein said cost information includestotal estimated cost information and estimated cost information perselected department, and said area information includes total areainformation and area information per department.
 22. Acomputer-implemented method as claimed in claim 19, wherein said costinformation and area information includes information for common areasand for selected department areas.
 23. A computer-implemented method asclaimed in claim 19, further comprising the step of: applying the methodsteps to a proposed health-care facility.
 24. A computer-implementedmethod as claimed in claim 19, further comprising the step of: applyingthe method steps to an existing health-care facility.
 25. Acomputer-implemented method as claimed in claim 19, wherein said step ofapplying the process framework draws data from user requirements andgeneric space allocations and a cost database and an equipment databaseand generic room data.
 26. A computer-implemented method as claimed inclaim 19, further comprising the steps of: receiving different userinformation after said step of generating the output; and providingupdated output information based on the different user information.